Patrianarchy
by breizhbit
Summary: Coulson has engineered a trip to the Hub to coincide with a prisoner transfer but his opportunity for self-reflection doesn't go as expected. Skye gets the chance to put faces to names, and vice versa.
1. Skyriel

"Skyriel!" he called across the expanse of the Hub's underground atrium. She barely had time to turn, to register strange dark clothes in black and green before he was there, effortlessly scooping her up as if she were no more than a doll.

As he crushed her to him, Skye heard him murmur, "When you were taken, I feared the worst."

By this point events had caught up with their team and Ward and May had their weapons trained on the alien criminal in their midst. Coulson was shaking. Knowing that the thing who had stabbed him-killed him-was being moved through the Hub today for interrogation, he'd almost relished the chance to see him again, to find out if hatred for Loki might reconnect him with his life before death. He had never expected to have his killer so close, to be forced to interact.

"Unhand my agent!" Coulson called, voice mostly steady despite his shaking hands. He hadn't bothered to draw his weapon, knowing that in this state of upset there was no way he could safely use it.

On the other side of the massive underground room, the guards who had been escorting Loki had realized what had happened, and were rushing to get back to his side. Even a room full of trained agents turn skittish when confronted with an interstellar terrorist with uncanny abilities, so the throng was shouting and fearful, not quite able to return to their orders and protocols in the face of such a blatant display.

For his part, Loki held the girl out at arms length so he could better see her. His pale brow was wrinkled in consternation.

"What trickery is this? FURY!" he yelled, and the halls reverberated with his anger, then fell eerily silent. It took Skye a second to realize he was calling for the Director and not announcing his emotional state. She looked at him sideways, not quite wanting to meet the livid gaze he had turned on her. She knew that this was Loki, adopted brother of Thor and the one responsible for the Battle of New York and its fallout. She knew she couldn't have seen him in person before, but there was also something vaguely familiar about him. Was it the feeling of his arms? The way he smelled?

"Skyriel," he repeated, "What have they done to you?" Loki's anger paled a little, and when Skye finally turned her eyes to his she couldn't uncover any deceit, just infinite sadness.

"I don't. . ." Skye cleared her throat. Was she afraid? She should be, but more than anything she felt confused. Her brain burned with the feeling of hovering at the precipice of a breakthrough, of finally uncovering some profound truth. It felt like hacking. She cast her eyes to the side, and was shocked to find that the rest of the room stood still around them, May and Ward's guns raised, Coulson's mouth open mid-shout. Fitz-Simmons were gawking with identical expressions of fear and surprise on their faces. Only she and Loki were moving.

"Shh," he soothed. "It is disgusting that they have involved a child in their pathetic plays for power, but I should hardly have expected any less of Midgardians. Believe me when I say I will make them pay." Loki's expressive eyes grew icy as he spat this out, and Skye shivered.

"Don't," her voice failed. She gathered herself together, grasping for any of the spunk she was frequently told she possessed. "Don't hurt anyone, ok? I know you were here for talks-I know you're here from Asgard to make amends or whatever. Please don't change your mind. I don't know you-I don't know why seeing me would change your mind."

This speech had the effect of thawing Loki's gaze, but Skye was completely unprepared for the tears that moistened the edges of his hard eyes. She was unprepared for this whole encounter.

"Poor, poor Skyriel. How unfair it is that children must pay for the sins of their fathers, though that truth holds on Asgard as surely as here. Perhaps it is a universal constant. I pray that someday we will have time to unravel this miserably tangled skein. But tell me quickly before my shield fails, how have they aged you so rapidly in a single year?"

At Skye's blank look he tried again. "Or is there something darker afoot? How old do you think you are? Do you even know your name?"

Skye knew she probably shouldn't be cooperating with the enemy, especially one who was spouting this much crazy, but she found herself answering.

"Twenty-five, I'm twenty-five-not a child," She raised her chin defiantly, though she suspected that only made her seem more childish. "And my name is Skye. Just Skye, not-whatever you said," she finished lamely.

Loki smiled a little at her, eyes still bright with unshed tears. "Twenty-five would still be a babe in Asgard, but by my reckoning, you should have only recently reached your second birthday. An infant by anyone's standards, I think." Loki had never relinquished his hold on her arms, so it took barely a tug to have her sprawling back against him. He kissed her forehead and hugged her close, whispering in her ear. "I promise I will discover what happened to you, and I will come for you. Keep safe, Skyriel Lokisdottir."

He kissed her forehead once again, and then he was gone, and instead chaos surrounded her. Between the heads of her crowding teammates, Skye saw Loki once more across the atrium, impatiently gesturing to his guards to get back in formation and lead him on toward the security checkpoint.

Coulson closed his mouth, surged forward, and for the second time in the last ten seconds, Skye found herself enveloped in a fatherly hug. After a lifetime of doing without, she guessed she should have been starved for them, but instead it felt like too much too soon. She patted Coulson's back a little, then pulled away, giving him a weak smile.

He didn't let go of her arms, but held onto her just as Loki had.

"Did he hurt you? I'm so sorry. We'd been assured he couldn't do-couldn't use-" Coulson still struggled to apply the human notion of "powers" to acts that matched so perfectly with the human concept of "magic".

"No-he just wanted to-ask me a couple of questions," she trailed off, not sure how much of that bizarre encounter was obvious to those around her. Was this a secret she should keep, or did everyone else already know? She looked around her with new eyes, and felt certain that if they'd thought it necessary-if it was orders and for her own good-every one of her teammates would have kept this from her. That was the point of SHIELD, wasn't it? To keep the pathetic little individuals from the truths they couldn't handle.

"I knew he would be here, I selfishly wanted to see him again, never thinking it would endanger my team," Coulson seemed to be talking to himself. His eyes widened again.

"He didn't-try anything else?"

So maybe Coulson didn't know.

"Ew, no," said Skye, aware of the others' eyes. "Let's get going." She tried a bright smile, but suspected from May and Ward's hard eyes that it fell pretty flat. "We still have a mission to complete. Orders, right?"

They slowly turned and continued toward the research wing where they had been headed before the world had turned sideways. The agents around them eyed her warily, but no one said a word to her as they slowly resumed their duties. Skye could tell from May's tense stance that she at least was expecting someone to stop them, but no one did. Fitz-Simmons seemed to be bursting with questions, but Coulson shook his head. No one voiced the obvious and they continued on unhindered. Skye blinked her eyes, inwardly reeling in shock, trying to process the outrageous story lurking behind the short conversation she had just held. It stood in stark contrast to the dark and purposeful air of the Hub. Secrets and lies. Business as usual.

A/N

So I know there are like 5 billion other supervillains in the MarvelVerse whose daughter Skye could be, but still, wouldn't it be weird/something if it was Loki? And and and time travel!? What do YOU think?


	2. Jemma

To Skye's surprise, Jemma Simmons got to her first. Their team had been at the Hub to follow up on a lead relating to the Deathlock technology-Fitz thought he saw a similarity to something he'd encountered at the research division archives. While it seemed like something for the Sandbox it turned out to have been a sub-par prosthetic whose only interesting facet was a particular method of adjusting to the particular user's body. They were able to find the original research in from the 90s and so had a few names to check up on.

That was what Skye planned to do as soon as they got to the Bus. Following up leads was a good place to turn her attention and nervous energy. Lord knew she had enough of it floating around in her system. Skye was incredibly confused about her encounter with Loki. What he told her was ridiculous-fantastical even-but she couldn't for the life of her think of why he'd want to mess with her like that. He was supposed to be the god of mischief, but telling a girl with no family she was his long lost baby daughter just for kicks seemed...like a pretty lame joke. The strangest part about the entire thing though, and what prevented her from dismissing the episode as a crazy dream or delusion, was the way that everyone at the Hub studiously avoided the topic of Loki. Their team was treated completely normally as far as hoops they had to jump through and paperwork they had to fill out to access the archives. Yet every single agent they had interacted with let their eyes linger on Skye a little too long, and it was clear that everyone from Director Fury on down to the janitorial staff knew something had happened between herself and the alien menace that was their worst nightmare brought to life, even though they didn't know what. Skye was dying to know if they'd been told something by the top brass or if they were all running on gossip, but it seemed like a bad plan to flat out ask and open herself up to the return fire.

She'd also been walking on eggshells, half-expecting to be scooped up again like a puppy at any moment by a huge alien convict. No one had told her where they were taking Loki, and she hadn't asked, but it was not unlikely that they would keep him on-site since the Hub had some of the best security SHIELD possessed. Skye turned and looked out at the dusty hangar where they'd parked the Bus this time and wondered if Loki could actually be deep in the ground beneath her feet. Did he know she was leaving? Did it matter?

Everyone on her team and at the Hub had been so painfully keen on avoiding her that it caught Skye off guard when Simmons glomped onto her as they were boarding the Bus and pulled her behind a stack of crates in the hangar. They squatted down like kids playing hide-and-seek and Simmons fished a little black widget from her pocket and pushed the button on the top.

"Signal scrambler," she explained hurriedly. "Now tell me! What happened? It must have been a time distortion field-I saw how you looked after he shouted and then when he left. You were in about a foot forward, but you hadn't taken a step. I was looking right at you. I know it. I've read the papers-I know they're possible in theory. And that for someone like-him-they're perfectly possible. I know we're not supposed to ask, but am I right?"

Skye looked at Simmons' eager face and sighed. She seemed much more concerned with whatever Loki had done to give them the chance to talk than what he'd said anyway. The rivets of the beige painted metal crate she was leaning on dug into her back and she squirmed.

"Uh, I guess so. He said something about a shield, and I know he had to be quick for some reason. Everything was normal with me and-Loki" Skye had sort of stumbled over his name and she wasn't sure why. Even if he was telling the truth and he was her father, what else was her traitorous mouth going to call him? Dad? Too bizarre to contemplate. She hurried on. "But I could see everyone else and they seemed to be frozen. So congratulations, weird time things do exist."

Simmons looked so thrilled with this news that Skye had to laugh. Then she felt a little sick. If anything Loki had said to her was true, then she was living proof that weird time things existed. One year to age twenty-four years, or twenty-three years lived in the past and then two years lived simultaneously as a baby and a woman at once in two different places. Wasn't that the upshot of what he'd said?

"Simmons, has anyone at SHIELD been working on time travel?"

Simmons looked at her incredulously, as if they hadn't just been talking about the subject. "Time travel? Theoretical time distortion fields are one thing, Skye, but time travel is merely a sci-fi plot device. There are far too many variables for that to ever be a viable field of experimentation."

Skye rolled her eyes. Things had gone so far into sci-fi that day that they'd jumped right into fantasy.

"Simmons, when I was shot-you took a lot of blood, right? Was everything normal? I mean, was it what you'd expect to find in a healthy twenty-five year old?"

Jemma nodded pensively. "It was, even after I administered the drug. I tested and tested to try to find what happened to it once it dispersed into your system, but I found no trace."

"Okay, but what about the rest of it? I mean, apart from the drug. Was there anything out of the ordinary?"

"Aside from the mysterious wonder drug, the only unusual thing about the whole scenario, medically speaking, was that we were able to keep you alive and stable as long as we did." Simmons shrugged, then looked a little embarrassed, "And of course you know how pleased we all are that it worked out."

Skye smiled slightly to reassure Simmons that her foray into geekery hadn't offended her, but her mind buzzed with questions. Was she a normal human girl, or a dangerous unknown alien?

Simmons was looking at her tentatively now. She brushed her hands over her professional black skirt although it was pretty hopelessly dirty from the dusty hangar floor. Her eyes flicked down to the lights of the tiny black device she held.

"Would it be okay to ask...what did he want? Loki, I mean. I heard him shouting something from across the room. Was it in another language?"

She wasn't sure if this was the stupidest thing she'd ever done in her life, but before she could think about it too much, Skye answered her friend. She was sick of secrets.

"Nah. It was my name. He told me my name. At least, if I really am who he thinks I am. I don't see how I could possibly be, but I don't know who else I could possibly be, so…"

"Your name? What name?"

Simmons' eyes were wide and questioning. Skye mumbled, "Don't laugh, ok?"

"Why would I laugh?" Simmons looked like she thought this was the strangest conversation she'd ever had. It wasn't anywhere near the strangest conversation Skye had been party to that day, so she kept going.

"Because it sounds ridiculous."

"Loki-evil prince of Asgard-told you your name and you think the name is ridiculous?"

Skye laughed, and Simmons giggled a little as well, though she still seemed mostly puzzled.

"Wait til you hear it, then tell me it's not: Skyriel. Crazy, huh?" She looked off to the side, hugging her legs and digging her fingers into the denim of her jeans. "Skyriel Lokisdottir."

Simmons straightened like a shot, sitting forward and leaning into her friend. "Wait, what? Did I hear that right?"

Skye wasn't sure if she was going to try to laugh it off or repeat herself when she was startled by hands grasping her and Jemma's shoulders, hauling them up.

"Slumber party's over girls," May's monotone was betrayed by a warning glint in her eyes. "Time to go. This is no place for truth or dare."

The older operative let go of them, but stayed behind them and marched them up into the Bus, closing the cargo hold before she left to get them off the ground.

Skye risked a look at Simmons and found her staring at her with her mouth open. She snapped it closed when she realized Skye had caught her.

"It can't be-everything came up normal," Simmons seemed to be in a daze, speaking more to herself than to Skye. "Sorry. I need to go run some blood samples-again," she said and rushed off.

"Great," Skye mumbled. Her big confession had just solidified her status as Simmons' science project. Maybe she needed to get better at living with lies.


	3. Grant

Skye went directly to her hideout in the SUV and stayed there mindlessly surfing the internet. She'd checked up on the names she had sufficiently to know that two of them were dead and one had accepted a professorship in Montana six years ago. No immediate red flags. She'd look into it further when her head was clearer. Right now all she wanted to do was be alone and watch cat videos on YouTube until her mind stopped leaping around from one outrageous thought to the next. It was easy to keep secrets when there was no one there to tell them to.

Still, secrets hadn't earned her any points with her SHIELD team, and this seemed like a pretty major one to keep, especially from Coulson. He had to be pretty upset about seeing the person he considered responsible for his death. She wasn't sure if he'd ever personally interacted with Loki, but his freak-out today indicated that he probably had. She winced, hoping that the crawling sensation in her gut that whispered she was the daughter of Coulson's killer was unfounded paranoia. As if their little family wasn't dysfunctional enough. She definitely didn't need a second, more homicidal father figure, did she?

Something made her look up from her screen though she couldn't say what, and Skye nearly had a heart attack. Her favorite S.O. had climbed into the back seat next to her without her noticing. For such a big guy, and one who usually prefered to bust into situations he sure could be sneaky. He spoke first before she had returned her breathing to normal.

"Ninja kitty is hilariously appropriate." He nodded at her computer where he must have been sitting next to her in the dark looking over her shoulder without her noticing. Creep.

Skye glared at him and blushed. Suddenly her whole body felt hot. Being in close physical proximity to Ward tended to do this to her. Even though she knew there was something going on between Ward and May and that it was none of her business her body still hadn't gotten the message that she needed to change how she thought about him. Besides, didn't finding out she was maybe an alien toddler change anything? She sort of choked on the image of a stereotypical meet-my-dad date scenario. Grant Ward on one side of a kitchen table—or maybe a table at a fancy restaurant, because since when did any of the three of them have a kitchen?—and Loki on the other in that ridiculous hat-helmet-whatever from the New York footage. Would baby Skye be there in her high chair? Skye wanted to bang her head against the window repeatedly and banish these bizzaro thoughts that invaded her head and had her hysterically giggling into her hand.

"What?" asked Ward.

"Nothing; cat videos," was her strangled reply as the giggles surged past her lips.

"Skye, you're a terrible liar. And you're crying. What's going on?"

Ward was so attractive when he was being compassionate. And when he was kicking ass. Skye did what she always did lately when she started feeling warm and gooey toward her SO: pictured Melinda May beating the crap out of people with her bare hands. It helped a little.

Skye put her hand to her cheek. Dammit, he was right-she was crying. Gah, too many feeling today! She couldn't even determine which one she should focus on first. Skye felt like she was splitting apart, fracturing into selves too fragile to stand on their own. She took a breath. She was Skye, orphan, computer hacker, and SHIELD trainee. Just because one alien dictator wanna-be thought she wasn't one of those things didn't mean she wasn't who she was when she'd woken up that morning.

Skye looked at Ward. "I literally don't know what to tell you."

She wasn't sure he'd get that but he seemed to. After all, he'd been around the block with SHIELD way more times than she had.

"This is hard. Sometimes we have to interact with other agents and don't know what they know. I get that. You stick to orders and work within that to find a way to make yourself understood."

"I don't have any 'orders' on this one and honestly, I think worrying about 'orders' is coming in a pretty distant second to keeping my head from exploding today," Skye replied.

Ward looked at her with the same solid assessing glance he gave everything from waitresses to enemy missile launchers. Still, Skye could tell he was warring with himself about something big. He let out a long breath.

"Okay. You know I'm not supposed to ask, but I'll do it because every once in a while your setting gets stuck on 'under-' instead of 'over-share' and something blows up in all our faces."

She gave him a nasty look, but couldn't deny it. She was a lot more forthcoming than her teammates, but hey, 1990s SHIELD didn't find it worth their while to put her in secret agent school like the rest of them.

"What did Loki do?"

Now that the L-word was out there, Skye's mind flashed through the whole episode that she'd been trying to ignore all afternoon. Her mind attempted to wring out some further meaning, but she wasn't getting anything.

She hedged a little.

"Do? He didn't _do_ anything."

Ward raised his eyebrow at that, and Skye realized she sounded annoyed, petulant as if she had _wanted_ Loki to do something other than stick her world in a blender and press "max speed".

"He didn't put some freaky sex-spell on you, did he?" If Ward was attempting to lighten the mood he was doing a truly shitty job of it.

"Gross. And no. I thought you'd be able to tell since you're the expert on being under Asgardian sex-spells."

Ward sidestepped that one. "Gross, huh? Well that's a relief. I'd heard there was some wacko contingent that was really into the guy."

Skye lived on the internet. She was very aware that there was a not-insignificant segment of the population that would be totally okay with being ruled by their would-be evil-overlord, in the bedroom at least. Skye thanked God, or whatever, for the fact that she was on team Thor for the war of the worlds hottest alien (menace). Normally she totally went for tall, dark, and saucy (see: ex-boyfriend; current crush) but it was way better to have the hots for one's adopted thousand year old uncle than to have _those_ kinds of daddy issues, right?

Skye's frazzled brain took a break and briefly wondered if she had been sent to school on Asgard if she'd have learned freaky sex spell casting. St. Agnes convent school had only taught her how to distrust organized religion and other large impersonal institutions. And even that lesson she apparently hadn't learned nearly well enough.

"He has been known to alter minds. Do you think you'd know if he'd done it?"

"Did you know?"

"With Lorelai, I knew what I was doing, but it was like she had completely rearranged my priorities with herself at the top of the deck. It was horrible, but she made it feel good, and that was even worse."

"I'm sorry. But no, Loki didn't need a magic spell to mess with my head."

"I guess someone who went down in history as the God of Mischief wouldn't. . .Come on Skye, you're killing me here. What did he say?"

Skye looked down at her laptop, the place where she usually looked for and almost always found her answers. It wasn't helping her here.

She looked at Ward, who seemed so concerned, yet was so thoroughly under SHIELD's thumb that she suddenly wanted to shake him up. Throw him off kilter if she possibly could.

"He told me that I was kidnapped as a baby and stolen away from my parents by SHIELD, which also either: A) aged me from baby to adult in one year and implanted a bunch of false memories or B) sent me back in time to grow up alone and unloved."

Ward whistled. "Wow. That is a mindfuck."

"I know. I just, I don't know why he would have said that. And he seemed so sincere. I guess an Asgardian who goes by the alias 'The God of Lies' would be a very fine liar, but why bother? Why me?"

"Huh." Ward looked uncomfortable suddenly. Skye definitely did not know what was going through his mind at the moment. "Time travel. Crazy. I mean, how would he even know about the kidnapping of a normal human baby, even if it was uh, fairly recent?"

Now Skye fidgeted uneasily. "Because he was there. Or he said he was anyway. I mean, I guess he was not there for the actual kidnapping part, because he seemed pretty pissed about it. I tried to talk him down a little, but I guess I should warn you guys the phrase 'they shall pay for what they have done' was uttered."

"Wait, he thinks SHIELD kidnapped you, and was vowing revenge because. . .?"

Ward was clearly waiting for her to fill in the blank, but Skye was feeling unhelpful. "Gee, let's think Mr. Operations Agent of the Year. If a kidnapping occurs and revenge is vowed by someone other than the kidnapee—" Skye pointed to herself, "who is the next most likely to be upset about it? In fact, what kind of babies are routinely kidnapped by SHIELD? Normal human ones? Probably not."

Ward's eyes widened.

"Oh come off it Ward. I know you know I'm an 0-8-4. Everyone on this plane has got to have heard that at some point by now."

He coughed. "I guess I might have overheard that, yeah. But this, this is huge."

Ward looked to the side, and his eyes were glazed, but other than that he was giving the tinted window his same old assessing glance. He coughed.

"Do you believe him then? Do you really think Loki could be your father?"

Skye shrugged. "I have no idea. I mean, there aren't exactly other candidates lining up for the position." She thought briefly of Coulson, and how good he'd been to her, and felt bad for putting it that way.

"What year?"

"Excuse me?"

"What year were you found?"

Skye looked at him skeptically. If there was something to this, and he was going to try to deny it afterward, or worse, if he was just winding her up to confuse her on some other point...well, she didn't know what she'd do, but it might involve more holes in the plane.

"1989."

"Oh shit." He was looking back and forth between her face and staring through the front windshield where Fitz was just barely visible in the lab. "And you're what...25? 26? Shit."

"What?"

"Shit."

"Agent Grant Ward, _WHAT_?"

If she had any freaky alien powers whatsoever, any good karma or any points for living through such a crappy childhood that could be cashed in, Skye willed them all into that word. She needed to know what the fuck was going on here. Living with the mental dissonance was getting too painful to endure.

To her surprise, his eyes settled on her face and he started talking.

"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but there's this. . .anomaly. Sometimes things get sent back and forth. It seems to move with us through time on this end, but on the other end it's always…"

"1989?" she guessed. He didn't need to nod for her guess to be confirmed. Then he crossed his arms over his well-muscled chest and shifted in his seat.

"But this is crazy! There's no way they'd put a person in 's no way they'd even fit. It's a...well, I shouldn't tell you that, but let's say it's not large."

"Would a baby fit, Ward?"

He winced, whether at the thought of sending a baby through a random hole in the fabric of time or at her icy, detached tone, Skye could not say. She hoped it was both.

"God, Skye, maybe, but I can't even begin to imagine the circumstances in which anyone would think that was a good idea." He ran a hand over his face. "Did he say who your mother is?"

Skye felt her stomach drop out of the bottom of the plane. So far, she'd been able to keep her mind far away from this question, the one that might break her. Tears were definitely sliding down her face now. She could feel them rolling hot and fast down her cheeks.

"Oh shit, Skye, I'm sorry. Is it bad?"

"No. I mean, I don't know. He didn't say, and there wasn't exactly time for me to ask."

Ward put his warm hand on her shoulder, and a sob ripped through Skye.

"Go. I want to be alone. I'm gonna cry, and as my SO you probably have to tell me to man up and stop. So just get the hell out of here," Skye tried to get all of that out before the next sob wracked her body.

Scooting toward her on the seat, Ward wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead in a gesture that Skye was now quite familiar with. He pulled back and looked her in the eye, sympathy and compassion fully legible in his face.

"Feel better," he said, and slid back over to open the door.

When it shut behind him, Skye let it all come out. She wished the SUV was parked outside somewhere. It should be pouring down rain, thunder booming and lightning flashing to punctuate her miserable heaving. Instead the fluorescent lighting remained bright and impersonal, hurtling along through space at thirty thousand feet.


	4. Fitz

When Fitz tapped on the window of the SUV, Skye woke from a doze. All her tears cried out, she'd fallen into a fitful sleep, but it was not very restful since her exhaustion was mental rather than physical. Skye peered blearily out the window to see Fitz's face pressed close to the glass, trying vainly to see past the dark tint. Great, now it was his turn to wind her up about her crazy day. Or maybe Simmons had sent him to rustle up some more blood samples. Not that Fitz would ever draw her blood—he claimed that it was barbaric that it still had to be done by hand. If he could build something to do it for him he would probably happily assist Simmons, but as it was Fitz liked to stay a safe distance from fluids. Simmons' brush with the alien electrical virus had solidified this tendency, so now it was bordering on a phobia. Soon he was going to start wearing rubber gloves and a gas mask everywhere.

Skye opened the door with a jerk—the car wasn't on, so she couldn't roll the window down (like May would ever give her the keys anyway)—and a faint smile touched her face as Fitz jumped back in shock. Uh oh. This wasn't some sort of genetic preference for pranks triggered by her encounter with Loki? Skye rapped her forehead lightly with her knuckles. If it was, this was a pretty lame example. And she'd always liked teasing Fitz. Wait, was that more or less proof she was Loki's child? Skye had hoped some rest would fix her brain up and keep these ludicrous thoughts from bothering her. Seems like it wasn't as effective as she'd hoped.

Oh well. Might as well find out what Fitz has to say on the matter, since all of her teammates were weighing in. She sighed.

"Okay, out with it," Skye commanded from the backseat.

Fitz gave her an annoyed look. Well, at least she didn't have to worry about him being sympathetic and sweet.

"I just wanted to know if you'd got anything."

Skye stared at him uncomprehendingly.

"Plunkett? McElroy? Barrows?" he asked leadingly.

Skye's eyebrows furrowed as she tried to figure out what their chief (by virtue of being their only) engineering officer was talking about.

He sighed gustily. "You know, the developers of the prosthetic technology that we've been investigating? You said you'd look them up hours ago."

"Oh, erm," Skye cast her mind back, trying to remember the details of the least traumatic parts of her day. "Died in a car crash, died from prostate cancer, professor at Montana State."

"Okay, so down to Barrows, then. Anything further on him? What's he working on now?"

"Ummmm. I think he's given up research for the most part and just teaches biomedical engineering."

"Nothing else? Financial records, suspicious circumstances?" he asked.

"I'll check again. Later." Finished with the preliminaries, Skye looked at him expectantly.

"Thanks, I guess, though I could have gotten that far myself." Fitz huffed a little and turned back toward the lab.

"Wait," said Skye. She'd gotten herself all psyched up to take Fitz's questions on the incident today and she didn't want to drag things out any longer than necessary. That, and though she didn't want to think too much about the inevitable conversation that was coming, Skye hoped that all these little heart-to-hearts might give her some idea of what she could possibly say to Coulson. So far she was still coming up empty.

"Don't you have anything you want to ask me?"

Fitz had turned back toward her, brow furrowed slightly in confusion. It cleared and he said, "Oh yeh, I guess it's my turn for dinner. I was thinking pasta. Would you rather pesto or marinara?"

Skye laughed at him outright. "Really, Fitz? I was accosted this morning in the Hub by the planet's favorite alien supervillain and all you want to do is ask me which atrocious frozen dinner I want?"

"Oi, I was going to boil the pasta in the lab and use the sauce from jars. High class it's not, but it's a big step up from—" Fitz stopped himself at her amused and incredulous look.

"Besides, I thought we weren't supposed to talk about that," he grumbled.

"I seem to have missed that directive," Skye said wryly. "Could you remind me exactly where those orders came from?"

Fitz looked extremely uncomfortable. Some secret agent they trained up here.

"Didn't you get them?" he asked awkwardly. "It was a system-wide notification. I thought everyone got it. . ."

"Not everyone," Skye said simply. "They seem to have left me out. It must have been an oversight, huh? So why don't you just go ahead and tell me what it said."

Fitz mulled this over for a few minutes. "They probably would have sent it to you if it applied to you," he said slowly, "but there wasn't much to it—certainly nothing you couldn't see. And it didn't say not to talk about the message itself. It was a notification that the prisoner's unauthorized interaction with a SHIELD contractor was an isolated event and is not to be discussed."

He shrugged. "Not much to it. Though I can't see how they can say it was an isolated incident unless they've since done something to—him—that makes them sure he won't be doing it again."

Skye's eyes grew large and she sat forward on the side of the SUV seat, setting her laptop down beside her. "I thought he was here for talks. I mean, Thor brought him down here to do community service or whatever it is that Asgard thinks is appropriate compensation for wrecking downtown Manhattan. I know they've been calling him a prisoner, but he wasn't in restraints. They wouldn't do anything bad to him just over this, would they?"

Worry knotted Skye's middle and Fitz looked both worried and puzzled at the change in her expression. They'd never talked about New York together before. Due to Coulson's circumstances the subject was pretty much taboo for the whole team. She'd mentioned it a few times, but Skye realized that she didn't know what her teammates thought about it. I mean, everybody could agree it was bad, but how bad? Lots of people on Earth were outraged that Loki wasn't executed for his role leading the attack. Others were just relieved when Thor took him home, considering that to be almost the same thing. Out of sight, out of mind.

Some less mainstream groups, like some of her Rising Tide cohort, saw the invasion as a sort of necessary next step to open their eyes to the realities of the universe. Sure people died, but the death toll was less than half that of the most recent hurricane in Latin America. Should the hurricane have been executed? The reality that Skye had picked up from SHIELD was that there was far too high a chance of Loki being able to manipulate the situation for them to risk executing him on Earth. They had little alternative than to send him with Thor.

Rumors of his death had circulated for a little while, though a public statement was never made. Sometime last year Thor had come back to Earth with Loki, saying their father wanted him to do penance on Earth and that they should accept the offer because Loki stood to gain significantly from good behavior and lose what little still remained to him in Asgard if he failed. That hadn't seemed like a very good deal to most; Ward almost punched through a wall when he'd heard. However, Thor reminded them that as long as all parties were treated civilly (Skye figured that meant no torture, no mind control) Loki's vast knowledge of everything from interrealm diplomacy to advanced applications of particle physics would be at their disposal. Let the wrecking ball that took down their era of ignorance give them the tools to usher in a new one of greater prosperity, went the argument, taken up enthusiastically by Simmons.

"I don't think they'd break the treaty over him getting out of line for a second, even if he did scare the shite out of us." Fitz regarded her expression of concern curiously. "Though given the number of SHIELD agents that died when he used the Tesseract, it's inevitable that this sort of fear and resentment remains."

Skye nodded, trying not to think too much about the pain and death caused by her possible father. If he really was this horrible, would it have been better to never have known? SHIELD evidently thought so, but even despite the cold feeling she got whenever she thought about Loki's misdeeds, Skye still couldn't bring herself to agree with them.

"You don't seem scared of him." Fitz stated this carefully, not asking her a question, also not participating in discussion. He was trying so hard to be careful, but Skye didn't think she could let him get out of this, not when Simmons and Ward had already succumbed.

Skye thought about it for a minute. "I guess I'm not scared of him. But he is a wrecking ball, that's for sure. We would all be going along with our little lives totally unaware of aliens and superheroes and everything that comes with them if he'd never messed with Thor in the first place."

"Well," said Fitz a little uncomfortably, "it's not like SHIELD had no idea that other things were out there. Every so often some tech comes through that is so radically different there's no way it was made on Earth. Mostly it's just rumors, but they're enough of them that even at the academy it was pretty accepted that we weren't alone."

Skye nodded absently. Not everything they'd encountered led back to Loki after all. Centipede had shown no signs of Asgardian involvement.

"Fitz, do you think Loki should have been executed? For what he did with the Tesseract? Or what he tried to do in New York?"

Fitz looked a bit surprised—Skye guessed he hadn't seen this coming. He sighed, stepping up so he could lean against the side of the SUV. Skye leaned forward so she could see him a little better.

"I guess you know we couldn't really execute him-it would have been too easy for him to trick us into thinking we had and then running amok. Maybe if Thor had helped, but he seemed to think Loki had just been having a really hard time with family stuff and needed to be sent back home to their parents. Kind of insulting, right? That conquering our world is seen by them as acting out, the equivalent of an adopted teenager's 'you're not my dad!'"

"That's not really what I'm asking. Even if we could have, would it have been the right thing to do?" Skye looked at Fitz earnestly, watching his brilliant mind sift through the facts and unknowns as he tried to give her an honest answer.

"I dunno, Skye. It's too complicated to say for certain one way or another. He killed people, and treated humans as if they were animals—something to control and exploit. But to him, aren't we? I mean, we have intelligence and free will, but we also only exist for a drop in the bucket of time an Asgardian has, and our society is less advanced and our bleeding-edge technology seems feeble to them." This last part must have burned him, as his eyes narrowed as he said it. Fitz may not have gushed about the wondrous scientific advances that Loki's knowledge could bestow on them, but Skye bet that he was no less eager than Simmons to hear what Loki had to say about Asgardian tech.

"So do you think he was too cruel? That he should have been taken out to pay for the lives that were lost?"

Fitz sighed. "Again, I don't know. People died because of Loki who wouldn't have otherwise. Property and morale and peace of mind were destroyed. But as much as the factory farm model disgusts me, I am not a vegetarian. I try not to be too cruel about the choices I make that affect the lives of those lower on the food chain than myself, but that probably doesn't mean much to the pig whose belly I had for breakfast this morning."

He waved his hand. "Sorry, it's a stupid metaphor. But I do think that a lot of our fear of Loki is fear that there's something else out there that can top humankind for firepower. I wonder sometimes if it was just Thor or Sif who came through if we'd eventually have come to the same place: fear and desperation that we can no longer stand at the top of the heap. Loki is just easier to hate."

Skye nodded, glad that she had asked Fitz. He sometimes seemed totally gadget-obsessed and socially clueless, but there was plenty of room in his brilliant brain for other thoughts, and she was glad to hear them.

"So you think it's fear that's motivating SHIELD and not so much a thirst for revenge?" she asked.

Fitz stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment before replying.

"I think they're probably too bound up together to tell one from the other. What is vengeance but the fear that we live in a world where someone's bad deeds against you will go unpunished? I guess whether or not you think it's merited depends on where you stand. So much of this is a matter of perspective. As a human and SHIELD agent, I think that Loki's invasion was way out of line and I'm glad he was stopped in his tracks. I also hate to think of him out there wreaking havoc totally unchecked. But if I were from Asgard, well, who knows whether or not I'd think trying—and failing—to take over a lesser world was such a big deal."

He trailed off with a shrug, and Skye's eyes settled sightlessly on Lola. If she were and normal human—or if she were an alien from Asgard. It all seemed to come down to that, didn't it?

Fitz roused himself from where he'd been leaning against the SUV, rubbing his shoulder as if it'd gone numb.

"Well, let me know if you do get anything."

"Huh?"

"About Barrows?" he said.

"Oh, uh yeah, sure. I'll get right on it," Skye lied. Fitz walked off while she stared out over the shiny red Corvette that Coulson loved so dearly and Skye thought about what he'd said. So much was a matter of perspective, and you couldn't have perspective unless you had the relevant facts. Until she knew for sure whether she was Loki's daughter there wasn't much point torturing herself over what he had done or making excuses for him. Not that she should necessarily do those things either way.

"Thanks, Fitz," she said softly, though he was already back in the lab, probably boiling water over a burner usually used for noxious experiments. Skye stretched and got up from her seat, grabbing her laptop and shutting the door behind her. Enough moping for the day. Maybe she should go find Ward again and get him to train her for a while. It was time to set Loki aside until she had some new information.

As Skye walked up the steps, she realized that she hadn't told Fitz anything that Loki had said to her. They hadn't even discussed why he grabbed her that morning. He had followed his orders to the letter. That tricky bastard! Skye smiled grudgingly to herself. She knew she hung out with him for a reason.


	5. May

Chest heaving after a brutal before-dinner training session with Ward, all Skye could think of was the peaceful shower she wanted to take before digging into whatever fresh-out-of-the box dinner Fitz had decided on. Ward had seemed a little surprised when she came to him with her chin lowered in determination looking for a workout, but when she told him seriously that she thought she needed it, he nodded solemnly and proceeded to kick her ass to the point where having thoughts of anything other than how to make it through the next rep was laughable. It was exactly what she needed.

The luxury of a full-service bathroom on a jet was something that Skye had quickly learned to take for granted. There was only the one shower stall, so there was frequent bickering about who got to make use of it when. Add to that the fact that Skye desperately needed to shower after every fitness and combat training session with her overenthusiastic SO, and that there were five other people on board to get annoyed with her frequent monopolization of the scanty hot water supply, and it should be clear that Skye was used to being teased, scolded, and reprimanded on her way to use it.

Perhaps that made it understandable that when May put her arm out across the hall in front of the door to the shower stall, Skye's first impulse was to roll her eyes.

"Come on, May," Skye puffed, "I know I took one this morning, but I'm going to smell like a barnyard animal if I don't get in there. Besides, don't you have a plane to fly?"

When May said nothing, just stood and assessed Skye with her own master-level deadpan stare, Skye began to get nervous. Was she in trouble?

"What are you planning to say to Coulson about the incident with Loki?" May's question caught Skye off guard, despite the fact that she'd spent most of the day asking herself variations on that theme.

Skye wiped the sweat from her forehead and tried to catch her breath enough to give May some sort of answer. Trouble was, even if she'd had the breath to give it, there were no answers to be had. Skye wasn't even sure that she was Loki's daughter—how that would even be possible considering her weak human body that had almost failed her after its run-in with Quinn's gun. What could she say? Skye bent over to start taking off her sneakers.

"Thought we weren't supposed to talk about it," Skye muttered. That dodged the question, but usually May was the one who was all about protocol.

"My orders were a little different than the mass email."

"What? Why?" Skye stopped what she was doing and looked up at May.

"My clearance might be slightly higher than you were led to believe."

"Woah. Poor Ward. But wait, do you know something?" Skye shot to her feet. "Do you have some information about whether or not what I heard today is true?"

May crossed her arms. She looked inscrutable in her standard black on black accented with more black, but this close it was impossible to notice how even in the heels she always wore May was a very small person. Small and deadly, Skye reminded herself hastily.

"That would depend on what you heard," May said.

Skye's brow furrowed. Did this mean May (and by extension SHIELD) didn't know what Loki had said to her? She thought for sure May had heard what she'd admitted to Jemma earlier, and that was pretty much all Loki had said except rambling a little about sins of fathers. He would certainly qualify as a sinful father. Perhaps if they got everything straightened out he'd give Odin some slack.

Skye decided to try out being bold. It worked for May.

"I think you heard what I said to Simmons."

May huffed slightly, something that could maybe be taken for a sigh, or perhaps a rueful laugh. "I heard her reaction. But I didn't hear exactly what you said, unfortunately. I have information, but what I am authorized to offer you depends on what Loki told you, so you need to choose to talk to me. This isn't going to go away if you ignore it. And Coulson has been wallowing in his guilt trip all day, not understanding that Loki seeking you out had nothing at all to do with him."

She paused expectantly, and Skye slowly rose from her place on the floor, picking up her gym shoes and sweaty socks as she went. The sound of Fitz and Simmons bickering as Fitz tried to get help with the dinner was audible from down the hall. Skye's mind raced. Should she try to obscure things at first like she had with Ward, talking about the kidnapping? Or just say that Loki thinks (or said he thinks, anyway) that she's his daughter?

"He told me my name, and that I was kidnapped by SHIELD as a baby." That was all true, so would it be enough to get her the information that May had dangled?

"What was the name he gave you and when did the alleged kidnapping supposedly take place?" May spit this out as calmly and collectedly as if this were a transaction at the bank. No pause at all. It didn't seem to be news to her. Skye had already told Ward and Simmons the relevant details, so what point was there in trying to keep anything from May? She knew despite their bond her teammates would share all of that information with a superior officer when asked. Any personal loyalty they might feel toward her would definitely be overridden in the interest of planetary security.

Skye wiped some stray sweat-soaked hairs out of her face and responded.

"Skyriel Lokisdottir. Sometime last year, but he didn't give a date. He was pretty um, upset, to see me looking all grown up."

Skye added in that last part mostly because some vindictive part of her couldn't release this big news to May without giving her something to make those steady eyes widen. And they did, slightly, nothing big but Skye's close scrutiny of her face gave her that much satisfaction.

May nodded, as if she'd expected nothing less.

"So is it true?" Skye demanded, when the older woman held her silence.

May turned her face away, even though there was nothing but the metal corridor to stare at. Finally she spoke.

"There were a couple of possibilities, at first. The SHIELD that found you in '89 hadn't been given any information, supposedly for their own protection, though it remains unclear why that didn't prevent the disturbances surrounding you as a baby. You fell off the radar for a few years there, after you'd wiped your own records. Still, when you turned up with the Peterson case, the Loki scenario seemed unlikely. You had no traces of Asgardian heritage, but you gave us the information on your orphanage. Using that we recently located an internal document connecting you to the time anomaly. Coulson's errand to the Hub today was approved to test the theory."

"Woah. Wait, so you put me there to bait Loki? You used Coulson?" Skye looked at May disbelievingly. Secret agencies were so fucked up. What the hell? Hadn't that man been through enough? Did May care about Coulson at all, or was it all an act?

May narrowed her eyes and said scathingly, "_I_ didn't put anyone anywhere. This all came directly from the top. Probably above the top actually, as there is nothing the powers that be want more than some solid leverage over Loki Odinson. Lauffeyson. Whatever."

Skye shook her head. This was too much. Skye shivered, the sweat on her skin suddenly freezing in the conditioned air. She hugged herself in the thin tank top that had seemed far too hot moments ago. To her surprise, the stalwart May shivered a little as well.

"AC must be acting up," she muttered. Focus back on Skye, May continued. "You are to remain in our care, continuing your role as a SHIELD contractor and trainee. Contact with Loki will only come in the event that he has reached an agreement with Director Fury that has been approved by the council. I wouldn't hold my breath. But congratulations, your welfare is now one of Earth's top priorities. If you hadn't been working with SHIELD already you probably would need to be taken into protective custody, but as it is you've been cleared to remain with the team."

"Uh, do you want me to say thanks? Like, I'll be fine until Loki acts up and it's time to send him a message carved into my little finger?" May rolled her eyes at Skye as if she were a petulant child.

Skye scoffed, "What? Is Stockholm Syndrome assumed in this case? I guess you've done a pretty fine job brainwashing me up to now."

"Give me a break, Skye. Last I checked, you were still a member of the human race. Whatever your paternity, your physiology must be that of your human parent, so things like planetary security should still concern you. This is your home. Loki is hardly in Asgard's good graces right now, so I think you have to take the fact that Odin has neglected to fly down here to get you in a chariot made of fire drawn by a hundred flying horses for the past twenty-four years as a sign that he's not going to."

Ouch. Well, Skye hadn't even let her thoughts get that far, but she could certainly concede May's point. So she was a hostage against Loki's good behavior. That made more sense than any of the rest of it. Very SHIELD-very human-to scramble to get any hold they could over a loose cannon like Loki.

"So all that junk about being put through a time anomaly when I was a baby is true?"

May gritted her teeth and muttered, "I'm going to kill Ward."

Skye held up her hand placatingly. "It wasn't his fault. I really needed to know."

The older woman narrowed her eyes speculatively, "Ward is a highly trained operations agent. One of our best. You thinking you 'need to know' something doesn't come close to a reason to divulge classified information."

Skye realized this. She couldn't say for sure why he'd told her when she'd been so certain he wasn't going to. At the time she felt like her freaky alien mojo had finally kicked into gear, but May was right. She was just a normal human, severely winded after six sets of squat-thrusts and some work on the punching bag.

May returned to her original topic. "Before I can let you go, I need to know what you are going to say to Coulson. Are you going to let him think that the incident today was his fault, or are you going to tell him why Loki really came to talk to you? Furthermore, are you going to reveal SHIELD's motives in orchestrating the situation?"

Skye looked at her disbelievingly. "You mean I actually get to decide something in all this?"

May snorted. "I don't know if you realize this _princess_, but you are being given a hell of a lot of leeway in this whole situation. Things could be going a lot worse for you right now. Part of that is down to keeping Loki happy, yes. But part of that is also due to Coulson. He wants you here, so you're here."

Skye felt pains in her stomach that had nothing to do with the ab workout she'd just endured. No matter what she said next, Coulson was going to suffer. It wasn't fair, but what could she do? Which path would cause the least suffering and still give him the truth?

Brow furrowed, Skye replied, "I guess I'll try for the middle path. The last thing Coulson needs now is to hear another way that SHIELD played him. I'll tell him what Loki told me, but not about SHIELD's scheduling. Unless he asks," Skye held her finger out, pointing toward May accusingly. "I am not going to outright lie to him for you guys."

May nodded, and moved aside, away from the shower stall. She brushed past Skye in the narrow corridor, but turned after a few steps.

"I know it all seems sordid and cloak and dagger to you, but I'm still glad to hear you care enough for Coulson to spare him whatever pain you can."

"Why, is that what's best for SHIELD's bottom line?" Skye asked angrily.

"Maybe. But no. The reason is that despite our job, and despite my orders, he's my friend. Talk to him after dinner. Don't leave it too long."

May turned and strode back to the cockpit, leaving Skye to the least comforting shower she'd ever taken.


	6. Coulson

Coulson was trying to repair some of the wear and tear on his favorite gadgets stowed on the bus in a fit of productivity. He had developed various coping mechanisms to avoid dwelling on his layered TAHITI memories. Most of them involved keeping his attention focused on the present moment at all costs. If he paused for more than a few seconds his subconscious would drag him back under to memories of massage and endless blue waves. Today, TAHITI was not the problem.

Since it had been mentioned to him that Loki was being moved through the Hub for questioning, the actual circumstances leading to the end of his life had come back to him in greater clarity. The implanted memories were still what plagued Coulson, but he tried to focus on the memories of his actual death. The shock of his wound from Loki, being pierced through, he replayed over and over. For the first instant the pain had been eclipsed by the surprise. He'd had Loki in the sights of his weapon and had been completely unprepared for Loki's illusions. It didn't make sense-what could it be but magic?

He'd held out long enough to fire the weapon and had died satisfied that he'd done all he could. Coming back, well, that was another story. While Coulson had been disappointed to hear that he hadn't taken Loki out, he hadn't been particularly surprised. Magical gods or super-advanced aliens were beyond his capacity for understanding or predicting. Still, it didn't keep him from hoping that seeing Loki again might give him some sort of closure. That had failed spectacularly at the same time it had put Skye in jeopardy.

A soft knock pulled him from these dark thoughts. Through the door, Skye called out, "Hey AC, I'm coming in."

Without waiting for a response, she entered.

"Hey Skye," Coulson said, trying to put his thoughts to the side for her sake. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. Sort of. You weren't at dinner."

Coulson smiled wryly. "Wasn't feeling particularly hungry."

Skye came up to his desk and began fiddling with a mostly disassembled 1960s era comm device. Something was clearly on her mind, so it wasn't as much of a surprise as it could have been when she blurted,

"Did Loki kill you?"

Both Skye and Coulson froze anyway. Skye's hand flew to her mouth.

"Oh god. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say that out loud. I mean, I've had a weird day. Oh shit. This isn't going well."

"No, Skye, after today you deserve some answers." Coulson took a deep breath and plunged ahead. "Yes, Loki imprisoned Thor and stabbed me. I shot him with one of the weapons developed from the tesseract technology after I fell, but I wasn't that surprised to learn later that it only slowed him down temporarily. Asgardians really aren't like us."

Skye looked like she was going to be sick, so Coulson hurried on, "I'm so sorry you got caught up in all this. I don't know why Loki grabbed you today, but you should know he's crazy-a killer-and his motives are impossible to discern."

Skye plunked down into the chair by Coulson's desk. He could see the tears in her eyes, and worried that she was letting herself get too drawn into his past tragedy. Or did something happen today that was upsetting her? Screw the hush order, he was going to ask.

Skye cut him off, her hand held up to forestall his speech.

"I know you're not supposed to ask. But I need to tell you. I know why Loki came up to me today. I've had his story confirmed by SHIELD, and I have to let you know. It has nothing at all to do with you. I want you to know that first of all. I had no idea there was anything personal between you and Loki before today. I...I'm so incredibly sorry. I'd never spoken to him before and he didn't say anything about you at all. I don't want to make you feel-overlooked, but I don't think Loki noticed you. He had something else on his mind."

"Skye, what are you saying?" Coulson couldn't imagine what Loki would want with his hacker protegé. Of course, there were several unsavory possibilities, but why should Skye be his target? She was a pretty young girl, but there were other more impressive agents in the atrium at the time. His memories of Loki crushing Skye to him were as disturbing as the others that had burrowed into his mind today.

Skye took a deep breath.

"Loki's my father. There. I said it."

Coulson stared blankly. This was not possible. Did not compute.

"What?"

"I had no idea until today when he called my name across the Hub and then came over to talk to me. I know it's bizarre-impossible. But he said I'd been kidnapped by SHIELD when I was a baby, and SHIELD all but admitted it, along with some other totally impossible stuff. So, I don't really know who's at fault here. Loki seems to have been looking for me since he found out I was missing, but well, that's bizarre and impossible too."

"Skye, this can't be. All reports say that Loki has never been to Earth before Thor's exile. At least, not for hundreds of years. SHIELD had nothing on him at all when you were a baby. I heard him talking about Earth during the New York invasion. There's no way he spent time here."

"That's the other crazy part. It involves time travel. . ."

Coulson looked down at the odds and ends spread across his desk for a moment before shaking his head. "Skye, I don't know what's going on with you, but I think maybe Loki did something to your head today. Maybe we should have Simmons check you out."

Skye fidgeted in her seat. Her eyes moved from side to side, as if thinking how best to address his disbelief.

"May. . .May confirmed it. I don't think she'd do that if I were compromised. SHIELD authorized her to confirm that I was taken from Loki as a baby."

Coulson rubbed his temples slowly.

"Wait, was this why...was this why he invaded New York?"

"Nope. I wish. Not that I wish a bunch of people died because of me. Not at all! Just, well, wouldn't revenge be a little more understandable? But no. That still sounds horrible. Please forget I said that. Loki said I was abducted a year ago, when I was still a baby. So it was us who took revenge, I guess. On me. Through me. It was SHIELD who shoved me through some hole in time and sent me back to 1989. So now I'm a grown woman, who should be two years old, but even at twenty-five I would still be a little kid on Asgard. Dude, it makes my head hurt."

Coulson listened to Skye's babbling. He didn't know what to make of what she was saying. In all his time at SHIELD he's heard countless impossible tales, but this one was testing the limits of his ability to suspend his disbelief.

"When did this conversation take place? We were there with you the whole time, and I didn't hear anything besides Loki saying something in another language and shouting for the Director."

"Oh. Simmons called it a time distortion field. She was really excited about it. It didn't last long, just enough time to totally confuse me and fuck up my fragile worldview for good. Or that's what it feels like-"

Coulson waved his hand and Skye shut up to give him a minute to gather his thoughts. She laced her fingers together and wrung her hands as his mind raced to catch up with the conversation.

"You're saying that sometime after New York, Loki came back to Earth and had a baby, then raised you for a year, SHIELD kidnapped you, and then what? He just forgot about it until he noticed you today?"

Skye squirmed, and Coulson realized that this was a pretty harsh way to describe the situation if Loki was indeed Skye's father. But he was a monster, and the sooner she realized that the better.

"Um, he said he 'feared the worst' when he heard I'd been taken. So, I guess he thought I was dead. He also wasn't there. Would he have been on Asgard then? When did he go back to make amends with Odin?"

Coulson scratched his head. Was she really trying to construct some sort of scenario where Loki acted out of anything other than arrogant self-interest? It took him a minute to realize Skye was legitimately asking him a question. He tried to set aside his anger and considered.

"As far as I know, that timeline would match up. So then you were what? Left here with your mother? I'm assuming she's human since you aren't...you know."

Skye's large eyes grew sad again and despite how outrageous this situation was. Coulson felt for her, he did. The events they existed on the fringes of were bigger than any normal human could be. They weren't superheroes. Coulson had seen the tests. Time and again, Skye's data had come back normal. If she was Loki's child, she was nothing like him. Why had May confirmed Loki's story? Even if it was true (which Coulson was still not prepared to accept) didn't SHIELD exist to keep this sort of cruel truth in the dark? Why tell Skye now? Why allow such a meeting to even come to pass in the first place?

She swallowed, derailing Coulson's troubling train of thought.

"I don't know anything about my. . .mother, and I hardly know anything about Loki either. But if they wanted me, and I was taken from them as a hostage, why did SHIELD shove me back through time without directions for the agents on the other side? What could possibly have happened for them to want Loki to think they'd killed me? Wouldn't that just piss him off more?"

Coulson sighed. "Skye, I'm afraid that's assuming that he cared about your existence enough to make you a hostage. You might have been sent back for your own good."

Skye looked at him, appalled. "I finally find out who my real father is and the first thing you assume is that he's an active threat to my safety? I mean, he cared enough to come say hi, at least. Why bother if he wants me dead?"

Coulson rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "Skye, Loki is nothing if not capricious. Just because he does—or says—one thing, it doesn't mean that he's not going to turn around and do something completely at odds with that later. All I'm saying is that he can't be trusted. You heard from him today, but where has he been for the rest of your life? If he wasn't there when you were abducted was he there when you were born? Was he ever there? You say SHIELD kidnapped you, but isn't it more likely that your mother gave you to them to save you from Loki? We haven't heard her side of the story at all."

Skye looked troubled. She cast her eyes over the parts and pieces of high-tech gone by and bit at her lip. It wasn't hard to picture Skye as a little girl with huge dark eyes-nothing like the ice of Loki's piercing gaze. Could she really be his child?

"If you want help finding her," Coulson continued, already imagining a different young woman, someone human like Skye, seduced by Loki's powers and his lies, "I'll do what I can. Though trying to find her may put her in danger as well. Your mother may want to stay hidden from Loki."

Skye nodded slowly. "I guess I can see how that might be possible," she said. "But I'm not sure how much more sense that makes than that she was acting with SHIELD against Loki. If fathers can be villains, mothers can too."

She unlaced her tense fingers to comb them nervously through the ends of her hair.

"Then what should we do? Nothing?"

Coulson felt the weight of her nervousness, the value of her trust that she would turn to him for counsel.

"I think that's all we can do. With Loki locked up at the Hub, it's not likely that he'll be around any time soon. I can try to talk to some of the other high-ranking agents, but I've got a feeling that anything to do with this case is going to be buried deep."

Skye drummed her fingertips on the arms of the chair.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by May's voice over the intercom.

"Sir," she started urgently. "New orders. We're about to—"

A loud thud that jarred the plane interrupted her.

"May, what's going on out there?" Coulson asked quickly.

"Shit," May swore, "Too late. Skye, get out here _now_."


	7. Bus Invasion: Take 412

Skye rushed out of Coulson's office after sharing a startled glance with him at the troubling sound on the roof. He followed quick on her heels, and in the main room they ran into Ward and Fitz-Simmons who'd come running at the sound. A new voice came over the intercom. Or not, since it seemed to be coming from all directions at once.

The cultured voice rang out, "Open your docking door in accordance with the recent orders from your Director and there will be no need for me to damage your aircraft."

Loki. Skye's eyes widened and her heart sped up even faster. Simmons was clutching Fitz's arm and Fitz was looking between her and Skye desperately. Skye wondered if he would regret not asking questions when he had the chance.

May's voice came over the comm. "I'm opening the overhead docking door to admit Loki Odinson of Asgard, cultural exchange appointee, in compliance with order four fifty-five niner signed with Director Fury's personal code."

Skye realized this speech was probably solely for the benefit of those inside, giving them a chance to at least hear the orders Fury had sent them before they did anything rash. Or before Coulson or Ward could do anything rash. Fitz and Simmons seemed pretty firmly stuck in their shock, but Ward unsurprisingly had a revolver in his hand and Coulson was reaching into his jacket for his holstered weapon. Skye laid her hand on his arm.

"Please, give it a chance," she said. "I don't want you guys to get hurt."

The door opened with a rushing sound, even as the stabilizers kicked in to keep the cabin from depressurizing. Skye's ears popped anyway. Soon it was open enough for them to see that there was no aircraft above them. Fitz gestured at the open space in horror for a beat—what could possibly be happening?

Then all was made clear as Loki jumped down from the top of the plane into the cabin and the door began to close behind him. May must have shut it, or maybe Loki had some way to do it himself, he was so full of surprises that Skye wouldn't put it past him.

"Skyriel," he said, moving forward toward her and totally ignoring the other humans in the room. He was wearing Asgardian attire, but not the full armour thankfully. His knee-length black tunic was imposing without being as ornate as most of the Asgardian clothes Skye had seen before. Maybe a prison uniform?

"I apologize for the delay, Skyriel. The humans were not keen on allowing me to leave their little compound. However they soon saw reason and we came to a mutually beneficial agreement. It took the afternoon, but afterward they even gave me a lift over here."

Skye stood there, stunned, but belatedly nodded since Loki obviously expected some response from her.

"Now I'm sure that you have many questions about your situation. I have found out the bare bones, though I am sorry to say some details still escape me for the time being. Do not fear; I shall uncover them soon."

Skye felt her team leader tense under her hand and she gripped his arm as Loki drew closer to her.

"Coulson, chill," she muttered. The last thing she wanted was for Coulson to get hurt. Loki seemed intent on her, and it was probably best for her teammates if he didn't show them too much attention.

Loki stopped his advance at her muttered plea and moved his piercing stare from Skye to Coulson. His eyebrows rose.

"Agent Phillip Coulson?" he queried, incredulous.

Coulson straightened, shaking off Skye's hand, and nodded warily.

Loki huffed an indignant laugh. "The same agent that Thor is so fond of? This may be awkward for you, but I'm supposed to have killed you. I can't tell you how often I've been subjected to my brother's drunken ramblings about that unfortunate incident."

Loki lowered his voice and puffed up his chest in imitation of Thor angrily wailing. "Son of Coul—that noblest of humans—is dead at your hand! Anything else, I could forgive you, but your callous disregard for that sweet and fragile human soul, for that you shall suffer, my brother!" Loki waved his hand and continued in his own voice. "And then he throws a table at me. I can't begin to tell you how amusing it is to find that he's been wrong all along. Though many of you do seem to refer to yourselves similarly. Perhaps it was some other human named Coulson Thor was acquainted with?"

Coulson slowly shook his head.

Skye sucked in a horrified (and unfortunately slightly morbidly amused—bad Skye, bad!) breath.

"You mean, you don't remember?" she asked Loki before she'd fully registered that she had spoken.

Loki shook his head, taking note of their horrified expressions. He seemed resigned to the humans' reaction to his attempted takeover of their world.

"No, I cannot explicitly recall many of my interactions with humans during the Chitauri affair, though I have vague memories of some aspects. During the attack itself I was in what I believe humans currently refer to as a fugue state." He sniffed disdainfully. "I certainly didn't plan the attack. The Chitauri leaders were disinclined to listen to my suggestions and unfortunately had their ways of ensuring my complicity in their shoddy plans. I cannot begin to tell you how embarrassing it is to have my name eternally attached to that pathetic excuse for a planetary takeover."

Ward couldn't let that one pass. "Easy enough to say when you failed," he said, voice hard.

Loki whirled sharply and took Ward in. He seemed more intrigued than Skye would have expected, giving Ward a kind of knowing glance that made absolutely no sense. Then he made another dismissive gesture with his elegant hand.

"That accusation might hold water had I not engineered the downfall of countless worlds in the past, most of which were far more advanced than this one. In any event the affair was unfortunate for all involved and I am ostensibly here to repair whatever damage I was involved in causing."

His eyes returned to Skye and Coulson. "If you in fact are the same Coulson my brother holds in such regard, I will say that I am pleased that you survived the battle to look after Skyriel. Thor seemed to find you an admirable specimen of the human race, so I will assume you are better suited to the post than most."

Coulson was looking pale and shocked. If Loki had meant this as some sort of compliment or thanks it fell pretty far short of the mark.

Skye leaned back out of Coulson's line of sight and made a warning face, shaking her head slightly. Loki surely saw it, but continued blithely, "Thor will be overjoyed at your continued existence. I'll be sure to inform him of it at the earliest possible convenience. In fact, I overheard Tony Stark mourning the loss of his most beloved SHIELD agent at dinner just this past week-end. How pleased he'll be to hear he was mistaken!"

May stepped forward sharply from where she'd been lingering near the cockpit. "The status of Agent Coulson is classified information that you are not authorized to divulge per the terms of SHIELD's treaty with Asgard," she stated evenly, though Skye could tell she was nervous. Her stance was as tense as Skye had ever seen it.

Loki turned with a rather nasty smile that showed too many of his gleaming white teeth. "Ah, there you are. I was expecting to find one of Fury's beloved little puppets up here. Now, why wouldn't you want my dearest elder brother to be made aware that the human martyr in whose name he slew the Chitauri fleet was not actually as dead as your director led him to believe, hmm?"


	8. How Indeed

"No!" Skye interjected worriedly. She did _not_ want the dissolution of the Avengers on her head. She had to get Loki off this track even if it meant telling him something SHIELD might like to keep back. "They were telling the truth. He was!"

Everyone in the room but most especially her scary alien father stared at her.

"Dead, I mean," she added. That hadn't sounded right. Crap.

Loki paced toward her, one eyebrow raised over a thunderous expression. Skye shrunk back, suddenly afraid. Coulson, despite the thick quiet of shock and fear that had settled over him, moved slightly in front of her as if to shield her from Loki. The Asgardian prince easily stepped around Coulson and lightly touched Skye's arm.

When she looked up into his eyes she saw that they weren't frightening at all. He gazed at her with concern and what Skye could swear was tenderness or a superb facsimile thereof. If this guy was playing her he was truly in a class by himself so far as acting ability was concerned. He leaned down toward her.

"What do you mean, dear heart?"

Fitz, bless him, broke his silence and blustered at this endearment.

"You can't—you can't just talk to Skye like tha'!" he cried.

Loki looked up, surprised. He cast a lightning fast look around at the other teammates who were alternately in shock and stoic (Coulson and May), covering her mouth in horror (Simmons), or indulging in a facepalm (Ward), and noticed no such indignation. His attention returned to his daughter, who was trying not to let some very inappropriate and slightly hysterical giggles past her lips.

Loki quirked a brow, and Skye found herself answering, whether it was some sort of alien compulsion or merely a desire to keep her friend from stepping in it further, she could not say.

"Fitz is a very good boy who did as he was told and did not discuss the incident this morning," she stage whispered.

Thankfully Loki also looked slightly amused.

"And I take it he is the only one," he surmised, copying her de sotto tone.

Skye nodded with a twinkle in her eye that she couldn't quite stamp out.

Loki looked at her questioningly again, but Skye shook her head slightly. It would be too cruel to Fitz to let things get any further.

"Fitz," Skye said, trying to get her voice straight and serious. "Loki's my Dad." Crap, she said "Dad". Should she have said "sire" like she was a horse or something? Oh, probably "father" would have been more appropriate. Oh well, too late now.

The rest of the room was surprised and a little creeped out to see identical expressions of more-amused-than-proper anticipation on Skye and Loki's faces as they waited for this to sink into Fitz. Skye and Loki eyed each other briefly, but turned back to Fitz.

Fitz had been glaring at the other members of the team who had apparently caved to curiosity despite their orders but his face went slack as this news rolled over him. His eyebrows raised incredulously and his mouth hung open.

He snapped it closed and Skye stopped revelling in his distress and rushed ahead apologetically.

"I was going to tell you, earlier, but you ran off. That's what he told me in the hub this morning. I mean, you knew I was an 0-8-4, right? So this is surprising but not out of nowhere, right?" she let out a somewhat forced laugh.

"0-8-what?" Fitz's eyes swept the room again. He folded his arms across his chest. "An' I suppose everyone else knew this too?" He said tersely. A guilty silence followed his words.

Skye shrugged. "Sorry, man."

Loki turned by to Skye gracefully and indicated Coulson. "You were speaking to me of your caretaker's death?" he questioned.

Skye nodded. "Director Fury wasn't lying; Coulson really was dead. He just… didn't stay that way."

Loki gestured for her to continue and once again Skye found herself pouring out the truth to her newfound father.

"He died in the attack on New York. You killed him!" for a second the true horror of the situation broke over her. If Fury had left well enough alone, she would never have known Agent Phil Coulson, and through him might never have had the opportunities he gave her to know her team and learn about herself. Not just about her origins, but about her capabilities as a human being. Tears stung her eyes at the thought that her own father could have inadvertently taken all that away from her. "But Directory Fury had access to a drug that was able to bring him back, even after being out for a couple of days. It works. I—I know, because I took it too. I wasn't quite dead, but I was headed that way."

Loki, always pale, looked even more so as he swallowed thickly. Skye shuddered. She'd pretty much just yelled at the evil alien everyone knew as intent on enslaving humanity. How would he react?

"Skye! You can't just tell him that!" Now it was Simmons who'd finally got up the nerve to break her silence. She was gesturing helplessly between Skye and May.

"May, you're going to let her spill huge secrets like that?"

May looked at Simmons levelly. "Part of the agreement is that SHIELD cannot dictate what Skyriel Lokisdottir can and cannot disclose to her father. Since she is a minor on Asgard, apparently that would be unethical by their standards." May's voice turned wry by the end of this speech.

Loki had apparently gained control enough to speak.

Or maybe not, for once again Skye found herself pressed up against Asgardian outerwear as he held her close.

"I'm so sorry to have failed you so miserably, my child," Loki sounded almost choked with emotion. She could feel his labored breath in his chest and her face heated slightly to think that her team was watching her being comforted like a baby.

"To hear that not only was I the instrument of harming your human, but that you yourself were in such mortal peril and I could do nothing to protect you—it brings me such pain. You should be protected from this sort of horror, not drenched in it as SHIELD apparently believes is appropriate treatment of children."

His voice turned hard for a moment, but he sighed. "How easy it is to rail against the instruments of our fate, but I know that in the moment that does not help you, Skyriel." He pulled back slightly so that he could better look her over.

"But you are now unharmed?" He searched her face carefully, and Skye got a tingling sensation that told her he was searching with more than his eyes. She pulled away.

"I'm fine. Good as new."

Loki turned thoughtfully, looking at May as he continued speaking.

"SHIELD must not have realized who you were if they allowed you into such a dangerous situation. How very careless of them."

He said this lightly, but May stiffened, and Coulson roused himself enough to exchange a glance with her at the threat laced into his words. Skye covered her face with her hands.

Loki returned his attention to her.

"Come, sit, Skyriel," he took her by the hand and led her to one of the chairs available and urged her into it. Loki seated himself next to her. Skye was struck again with his grace. She herself displayed none of that whatsoever. How could this creature possibly be her father?

"While you seem to have adapted to the degree of disinterest that the human organization has treated you with, I hope you will understand my concern. On Asgard children are our most precious resource and a source of the greatest joy. You should never have been subjected to this lifestyle. I regret greatly that I did not secure a place for you on Asgard, even through deception, before I submitted myself to my father. Leaving you on Midgard, even protected as I believed you were, was an inexcusable mistake. I did it largely so that you would be recognized in the order of succession, and it seemed a cruel twist of fate indeed when I learned of your possible death while I was undergoing Odin's idea of princely rehabilitation."

Loki's mouth twisted unpleasantly at the end of this, and it seemed unlikely that any of them there had much idea what Odin would consider appropriate in Loki's situation. Skye tried to take in everything Loki was saying, but she was having trouble getting past the huge feeling stuck in her chest that tightened whenever he expressed his care like a normal parent. She'd never had one of those though she'd studied them carefully enough growing up. Loki looked at her sympathetically and reached out a long-fingered hand to brush her face.

Skye couldn't handle this kind of tenderness. What if he was faking after all of this? What would she do then? She pulled back before he connected with her skin and gestured to the rest of her team members.

"I guess you should sit, guys. No point in being on your guard, right?" She gestured vaguely to Loki who could easily wrend them in pieces with his bare hands, and had actually already killed one of their number. Poor Coulson.

Skye looked at him to see how he was holding up. He still looked like he was seeing a ghost, but he moved over to sit in a chair to the opposite side of Skye from Loki.

"There's always a point to being on your guard," Ward said, though he moved to lean against the bar. "You should remember that Skye."

Loki looked amused at this piece of advice, though when he saw Skye's answering blush and stutter he raised an eyebrow and said lightly, "Indeed you should, Skyriel. As well as who it was that first warned you." He flicked his eyes toward Ward's face, which now looked slightly pale.

Skye turned questioning eyes on Ward who just shrugged. Maybe he was nervous with all of Loki's attention on him. It was strange.

"Now," said Loki as the team members arranged themselves to their satisfaction, "I know you must have questions, Skyriel. Please, ask me whatever you would like. We have some time yet before you should be in bed, little princess."

A/N

This story is my short chapter story, but there's no reason why they can't be short and plentiful. Loki is taking questions, so if there's anything you think Skye or the rest of her team should ask him, tell me in a review. Maybe he will deign to answer! :D


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